Morocco Day 4 & 5: Tafraoute

Mom and I posing in the mountains

A Coca Cola truck riding up mountains in the middle of nowhere

There was a small house and village along the edge

Dad and Mom

We often saw this sign when we were going down steep, sharp, windy, near-death roads. It made them all the more frightening...

My face doesn't even come close to the actual fear expressions

Charmaine was loving the mountains too, and here was a nice calm spot for her

Our cute little room in the hotel

and a little more of the room

This was part of the lush palm groves in the valley that we drove through

We found a swimming hole that was a favorite of the locals

The kids would jump from really high....

and here he is getting ready to jump...

and he jumped! It's just a funny time I caught him, it looks like a dead body falling.

The locals

We also saw some huge boulders.

Charmaine's dedication to her son, Dean.

These are the painted rocks which you will find out in the desert.

One was even painted to look like a house

Local Moroccan's at the water well. This is what real Morocco is!

We spent our day 4, and the beginning of day 5 in Tafraoute, a small friendly village also situated along the mountains. We had a cute hotel with comfortable rooms. After we arrived, we got ourselves settled into our rooms, and had a quick stop at the hotel's restaurant to get some fruit and water so we could fuel ourselves up for the next part of our adventure.

So, we headed towards the lush palm groves situated in the valley of the mountains. On the way we stopped to take a few roadside pictures, where we saw cool things like more mountains, local people at the well, random coca cola trucks, and other things of that sort. Unfortunately, we missed the goats that climb trees. They would have been pretty cool to see!

We reached the palm groves, which were a change to see after driving through so much desert and mountains. To be in a green valley was just lovely and cool and refreshing. We immediately found some locals who were enjoying the swimming hole. I asked the kids about the water, and they said it was pretty cold. I didn't have a swimsuit anyways, so I didn't worry about not being able to go in. The kids however were loving it, and had no problem going in and jumping and diving from very high distances. I would be way too afraid to jump from that high, but these kids, especially the boys, were fearless. I was able to capture some pretty good photos, and the one was rather funny, being that it looked like a dead body being thrown from the cliff.The rest of the valley had houses spread throughout, some with some pretty cool art work.We would stop occasionally to get out of the car and walk for a bit. At one point, our driver, Abdel, drove ahead of us so we could walk. Well, he went pretty far ahead, because it seemed like we were walking forever, and began to feel as though he had abandoned us, and left us for death. Lol, just kidding. We found him up ahead. 

After the palm grove visit, we again made our way back to the hotel. I was feeling extremely exhausted and had to lay down to take a short nap. When I woke, it was dinner time, and again I had some tasty beef tagine for dinner, followed by a creamy flan (mmmmmm yum). 

We also took a walk up and down the road where there were many little shops to look in. Many of the  people hand-make shoes, so my mom bought a pair. After our walk, it was time to retire for the evening. I was exhausted and ready to shower and hit the hay. The night ended peacefully except for the surprise visitor in the bathroom (a little roach), which Charmaine so kindly eliminated for me so that I could bathe in peace, and prepare for the next days adventure.